Barnes Wins 500th as Horns Crush Bearkats
by txtwstr7 on Nov 24, 2010 1:53 AM CST
in Texas Longhorns Basketball
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PrintA few years ago, I wrote a post ranking all the home games for the entire season. While I wont be writing a similar post this season--due to my upcoming military training--I would imagine this game would rank really low on such a list. Coming off two brutally taxing games against top-shelf opponents, Rick Barnes was comfortable in giving double-digit minutes to all nine of our scholarship players. As a result, no one played over 28 minutes tonight. This led to a lot of wonky lineups in the first half that produced sloppy basketball.
However, while this game wont remain firmly entrenched in anyone's memories, there are several individual storylines that took a step forward tonight. After the jump, I'll comment on the crowd, provide a narrative of the game, and then go into individual player breakdowns.
Erwin Center Crowd: Y'all know what's coming, so I'll keep this short. Coming off seven years of using student tickets, I decided to sit in the mezzanine with some relatives tonight. After leaving West Campus around 6:15, I walked to the Erwin Center, paid $7 for a general admission ticket, and then walked to their section. It was that easy. Despite the simpleness of this process, it was a totally dead crowd that provided zero buzz.
Basically, it costs more to buy a large teriyaki bowl combo from Jack-in-the-Box than it does to attend a UT Basketball game. And, on Saturday for the game against Rice, it costs even less than that. From the UT Website:
Texas men's basketball hosts Rice University for a game you don't want to miss. Fans who bring their ticket stub from the Nov. 25 Texas vs. Texas A&M football game will receive a general admission ticket for $6. Fans can also bring a new unwrapped toy to donate to Orange Santa and receive a general admission ticket for $2.
Game Narrative: As I mentioned above, the first half was a sloppy affair that involved 23 turnovers from the two teams. From the opening tip, Texas was pushing the ball, and the starters jumped out to a quick 10-4 lead at the first TV timeout. However, coming out of this break, Barnes substituted Brown and Lucas for Hamilton and Balbay. Less than a minute later, Barnes substituted Matt Hill for Tristan Thompson. After these starters were pulled, Texas predictably went through some rough patches of offense. Marred by some offensive fouls and missed 3's from each of the guards on the floor (Lucas, Brown, Joseph), the Texas lead was only 12-8 when Balbay, Thompson, and Hamilton came back into the game around the second TV timeout.
After some really ugly basketball--including a string of turnovers by the teams on on 4 straight possessions--Texas finally started to pull away with its best players back on the floor. Knocking down five straight shots, Texas went on a 9-0 run over two minutes to expand its lead to 23-8 at the 7:30 mark. After the lead increased to 25-10, Rick Barnes once again did a mass substitution, putting in Lucas/Brown/Hill for Balbay/Hamilton/Johnson and then later Wangmene for Thompson. And, once again, the team struggled with these lineups on the floor. After SHSU closed to 27-16, Texas used the re-insertions of Balbay and Hamilton to go on a 6-2 run to end the half with a 33-18 lead.
The beginning to the 2nd half was bizarre, as SHSU racked up 4 team fouls in the first 91 seconds of the half and 6 fouls within the first 3:30. Despite the slew of early whistles in the half, Texas played much crisper and efficient basketball. In fact, after having 12 turnovers in the first half, Texas only turned the ball over 3 times in the second half. Additionally, the team shot 57% from the field during the half, which included missing a few gimmes. Using a barrage of jumpers, made free throws (!!!!!), and lay-ups, Texas boosted their lead up to 49-26 in the first 6 minutes and never looked back. The rest of the game was just a further continuation of the beatdown, so let's get into the player observations.
Player Notes
Jordan Hamilton: What a stud. I yelled "I love you, Jordan" from the mezzanine about 10 times tonight, which is about 8 more times than I professed my affection for him during all of last season. He was outstanding. His crazysexycool stat line of 25 points and 9 boards on 9/12 shooting doesnt even give him justice. Jordan scored from all over the court tonight. He knocked down jumpers, posted up, diced through the lane a few times, and knocked down 5 of 6 free throws. I wasnt even too upset when he got too aggressive in trying to take the ball to the hoop in transition.
Bottom line: Jordan scored 25 points in only 27 minutes tonight, and I never really felt like he was trying to force his shot. It's his 5th straight mega-stud performance, yet I dont think we're even close to seeing his best efforts of the season. He's playing hard, he's playing well, and he's my favorite player on the team right now.
J'Covan Brown: The best news about J'Covan's game tonight is that he didnt have any emotional blow-ups. In fact, the one time it looked like he was going to pout or sulk, he was quickly met by Balbay, who made sure he calmed down. Tonight wasn't a breakthrough performance from Brown, and he still had a handful of silly turnovers, but it definitely wasnt a step backwards. I also thought he was pretty active on the defensive end, which was nice.
Gary Johnson: The box score is really misleading over how Gary played tonight. Even though he accumulated his usual 9 points and 9 rebounds, he struggled for most of the game. In fact, before piling up 7 points in the last 4 minutes, Gary looked uncharacteristically out-of-sync. He missed his first 5 shots and started to press a bit. At one instance, he missed a point-blank putback and looked very frustrated with himself. Some have already started pontificating over how Gary is potentially being affected by the new players and offense, and I'd love to see some people tackle this issue in the comments.
Tristan Thompson: Not a strong game from Thompson, but, in his defense, he really didnt get a lot of looks. The SHSU coach credited Antuan Bootle for helping lock up Thompson's post game, but the reality is that Thompson was rarely targeted tonight. He was so uninvolved that I would have guessed that he played the least minutes of any starter. As it turns out, he played more minutes than anyone else on the team. Bizarre.
Cory Joseph: Tonight, we saw some glimpses of Joseph's offensive game. He hit some jumpers in the flow of the offense and actually made all three of his shots from inside the arc. Unfortunately, he still hasn't gotten his outside shot to go down. He missed another pair of 3's tonight, which takes his 3P% down to 15% for the season. He didnt try to do too much tonight, and it actually suited our efforts well. Work in progress.
Dogus Balbay: Dogus played great tonight. He was pushing the tempo, attacking the basket, and being much more active on the court. While he missed his only "real" jumper, he scored six buckets, all of which came from within 2 feet of the basket. He also played his traditional defense and gathered his normal assortment of steals, assists, and rebounds. Even though SHSU sagged off of him, Balbay was able to consistently finish at the rim and never felt like a liability. In fact, perhaps the simplest summation of Balbay' s game came from Balbay himself: "I just ran up the court and tried to get easy baskets."
Matt Hill: Plain and simple, this was Matt Hill's best game of the season. In fact, his performance helped demonstrate exactly why he got so much praise from Barnes during the off-season. In his 14 minutes, he grabbed 6 boards and had 3 blocks. One of his blocks was particularly noteworthy, as it came after one of our other defenders let a Bearkat blow by him. Additionally, and in a contrast to Wangmene, I thought Hill was also very comfortable within his limited role in the offensive sets. I know it's a broken record, but, with our severe lack of depth, Hill and/or Wangmene must be able to give quality minutes off the bench for Thompson or Johnson. Right now, Matt Hill looks like that guy.
Jai Lucas: I'm not going to dogpile on Jai tonight, even though the team went through some rough stretches in the first half with him in the game. Despite his limitations, which were apparent even tonight, he had some nice sequences in the second half and didnt turn the ball over. But let's be honest here. Lucas's most important contribution tonight was that he allowed each of our other three guards to get some rest. And, for Lucas, that's good enough for me. This is especially true after watching Cory Joseph doing mountain-climbers outside the free throw line because he was cramping against Illinois. Like I said about Joseph, it would also really be nice if Lucas could get his outside shot to start falling, as he still hasnt made a 3-pointer during the entire season.
Free Throw Watch: Texas hit 15-19 free throws tonight. Huzzah!
Next Game: Saturday vs. Rice at 3 PM
Hook 'Em!
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What do expect from the crowd for this game?
Its a horrible game at the beginning of the season. I’ve seen several games already this season and the crowd at their venues weren’t good either. If the crowds are bad at football games why would you expect them to be good at b-ball games?
Turnstile 6,706
Just sad.
This is a top 20 basketball team with some exciting young players. The game is cheap and relatively short in length as well. It also started at 7 pm, making attendance ok even for people that are working today.
You are right—our crowds are disappointing at DKR and at the Drum. However, that doesn’t mean that aren’t still sad and worth mentioning.
--AW--
This hits the main points...
It’s cheap, doesnt take up too much time, and involves an exciting team…
Some people have ruminated that the subpar football season would give a boost to early-season basketball attendance this year. Additionally, the team just played outstanding basketball in MSG against two Top-15 opponents. With these combined factors, I thought it might provide a better-than-usual crowd for a November non-con game. It didnt, and I wanted to point that out.
I wasnt expecting a sell-out or anything, but I was still disappointed…
Nice work.
Happy 500th Barnes.
It’s also FREE to go to the games if you have the LASP. It really sucks that they don’t have a way for faculty/staff to draw tickets online like students can – they force you to go to DKR to pick up tickets every couple of weeks. You’d think they’d be psyched for anybody who actually wanted to show up at the game, and make it easy for them.
Was that you doing the Wabash dance over near the students, or did you pass the torch on to somebody else?
Torch has been passed...
…that was a friend of mine from last year’s O-Zone.
I sat upstairs last night.
I didn't know
You did that dance. What years did you do it from? Always enjoyed that.
by GoHornsGo90 on Nov 24, 2010 10:44 AM CST up reply actions
I thought so
He did OK but didn’t quite have the same enthusiasm and precision. But I couldn’t really see well from my seat, and I was mostly watching the Pom ladies anyway.
Gary had an off night.
Don’t think his performance season-to-date has anything to do with the “other” players. If anything, I think he elevates the play of those around him similar to Doge. Gary is a great hustler. That’s how I see it.
Different view
As I mentioned elsewhere, Gary seems way out of synch with the other players. He seems intently focused on his own game, but unaware of what’s going on around him. His offensive boards are way down. Thompson is getting the hustle baskets that used to be Gary’s. In short, he has a new role on this team and is still adapting.
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.
Nice write-up
I also noted the sloppiness, especially in the first half, and some laziness on defense, especially in the second half. I guess this is to be expected given the quality of our opponent and the fact they were coming off two big games in NYC.
Hamilton was a stud for the fifth straight game. J’Covan played his most complete game of the season and actually competed against the other team and not the refs. Balbay was outstanding.
I liked Joseph’s movement without the ball. His curl cuts got him three or four great looks in the halfcourt and a few more off baseline inbounds plays. I’ve said this before and some of you thought I was crazy but Cory shoots the ball more with the palm of his hand than with is fingertips. The ball doesn’t spin like it does when correct fingertip shooting his used. His shot is not a push shot like a little kids’ but it isn’t a quality looking jumper either. I think his shooting percentage will stay lower than expected until he can shoot the ball more with his fingertips and less with his hand.
As you noted, TT got lost in our halfcourt offense and Gary was unusually frustrated, even against the short Sam Houston frontline.
Overall, a win and some small steps forward by Cory, Matt Hill, and J’Covan.
Next up: Rice on Saturday
--AW--
Some follow-up thoughts
Hamilton is going to be a top 5 pick if he plays remotely like this throughout the season.
His three ball is improved in its urgency, in that he doesn’t feel like one shot is justified by knowing he’ll be able to take another the next time down the court, and that is really allowing him to dominate college players that love to run out at him and stop the “SHOOTER.”
He developed a deadly midrange game over the summer, and I loved his pumpfake and 17 footer in the second half. He also had a beautiful pump fake where he should have chunked the ball up to get three shots, but would have had a reverse dunk on the baseline if the ref hadn’t called a foul (he actually finished the play after the ball stoppage, but to a lesser degree).
Additionally, he makes some of the quirkiest shots I’ve ever seen from near the basket, particularly from the right block. This helps with his new-found postgame. Seriously, how much better can you get in one offseason?
I can’t express how much I appreciate Jordan’s dedication to the team and to improving his game to such a huge extent in the offseason. I was mildly irked that Barnes gave him zero credit in the postgame conversation, because JH deserved it.
JCB’s attitude was great in the game, IMO. He had one brilliant play where he made a ridiculous (in a good way) spin move near the hoop on a fast break then found a player underneath for an easy deuce that had the crowd going nuts, but was called for an offensive foul (he didn’t even touch a defender, much less foul one; horrendous call). He was disappointed, but didn’t freak out or complain too much, just bemoaned loosing such a stellar play. I was proud of him, because it was probably worth a freak out. His defense was superb and he was making good plays, something we’ll need out of both him and CoJo.
Thompson had a rough game, but it didn’t help that we continually run our cutters right into where he’s standing, not only putting our own players in the way, but also bringing their defenders over to clog up the lanes and knock the ball away. Need to figure the off-ball movement out when we have TT in the high or low posts, as well as where and how to position shooters (i.e. not having Balbay ball side and instead putting Hamilton and Joseph/Brown).
by GoHornsGo90 on Nov 24, 2010 10:43 AM CST up reply actions
The announcers mentioned JH’s attitude about what transpired last season and how he decided to take a leadership role this year. That alone makes me love this kid.
What we have here is a failure to execute.
by dimecoverage on Nov 24, 2010 10:47 AM CST up reply actions
Gary Johnson's Mouth Guard
Probably an irrelevant statement in analyzing last night’s game but it is pretty distracting watching Gary Johnson play with his mouth guard hanging out of his mouth almost the entire time he is on the court. Seems like he ought to just not use the mouth guard or leave it in his mouth where it is intended to be. Not only looks really bad but maybe it is distracting him. I’m surprised that the coaching staff doesn’t say something to him about this.
On attendance, one major factor is quality of competition. I agree that it seems like people would come out to support a top 20 team, but they want to see an exciting, competitive game. They will fill the stands with a high profile opponent (like a Mich St, UCLA, etc) but there is just no much interest in watching a Coppin State or North Florida. I know some of the “high level” programs will fill the stands with these kinds of games but that is just not going to happen at UT.
Still expect Joseph to start shooting better from distance.
As for Thompson, I think opponents are really starting to sit on his turnaround jumper going over his right shoulder. We’ve seen the dropstep from him at times, though he seems to like to use it when he is a bit too close to the baseline. If he could add a little shoulder shake into the middle to it, I think he could get a lot of easy baskets around the bucket.
As for Lucas, his stroke is far from pure, as he kind of pushes the ball towards the basket. He was, however, effective with it while at Florida, hitting 43% of his looks from long range, even knocking down 12 of 26 last year. Based on the numbers, he should be able to get it turned around.
From a team-wide perspective, it’s concerning that Hamilton is the only effective three-point shooter right now. It places a premium on defending the arc at the other end of the court because if the ’Horns give up 10 or more three-pointers in a game and Hamilton only hits a couple, it quickly becomes a matter of having to make a lot more baskets than the opponent to keep up.
Speaking of Hamilton, it’s amazing the transformation that he has made this season, evidenced by the fact that he came back this weekend and spent a lot of time working with Todd Wright on his defense after Barnes was substituting him out late in the game against Pittsburgh. The telecast of the game also featured a quote about how if he sees any of the freshman being uncoachable, he’s going to step in and tell them what they need to be doing, though I don’t think that’s going to be a problem with Joseph and Thompson like it was last season for he and Brown. And that’s not even mentioning his quantum leap in understanding the difference between a bad shot and a good shot. Wow.
by Wescott Eberts (GoBR) on Nov 24, 2010 12:09 PM CST reply actions
Joseph
Is limiting his skillset to what Bradley did last year, run off screens and shoot jumpers. That’s not really his game, but it’s a good start until he gets his confidence up more and starts making plays consistently (like that step back in the Illinois game).
by GoHornsGo90 on Nov 24, 2010 12:21 PM CST up reply actions
Jeffcoat
Do we get another widebody now that fb is really done?
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